As part of measured steps toward greater openness, a department of the Imperial Household Agency on Friday guided academics and reporters around a hitherto off-limits megalithic burial mound near Osaka Bay. Dating from the late fifth century, Tannowa Nisanzai Kofun is an earth mound ...

The Imperial Household Agency has made public a 61-volume, 12,000-page record of the life of Emperor Hirohito, who reigned from 1926 to 1989. The compilation took more than 24 years, but the record does not include what the emperor said about Japan's war in ...

A high school girl in Tochigi Prefecture uploaded to her Twitter account a photo of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who visited the prefecture on a personal trip, sparking debate on whether or not she should have done it. Many praised the photo for ...

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday he was distressed by remarks Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Noriyuki Kazaoka made regarding Princess Hisako’s attendance at the upcoming International Olympic Committee meeting in Buenos Aires. On Monday, Kazaoka said it was a “difficult decision” for ...

The Imperial Household Agency said Monday it has reduced the number of households in the Imperial family by one, following the passing of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa a year ago. The household led by the late prince has been integrated into the one led ...

In his Dec 19 article, “Why are monotheisms so sexually obsessed?,” writer Gwynne Dyer seems to make the common mistake of comparing Western monotheistic religions, with which he is familiar, with less familiar Asian traditions. Contrary to the “grass is greener” view that many ...

The contrast between the deaths, within two days of each other, of Libya’s Col. Moammar Gadhafi and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz is one of terminal buffoonery versus decadent gerontocracy. And their demise is likely to lead to very different outcomes: liberation ...